


A Promise to Return

by TheaTerathiel



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Feelings, Post-Canon, Romantic Fluff, Useless Lesbians, so many feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23324542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheaTerathiel/pseuds/TheaTerathiel
Summary: Azeroth has not known peace for a very long time. Constant wars have scarred its surface, displacing lives, setting heroes to despair, and tearing lovers apart. For Ariadne, she had sacrificed the latter willingly - a price she paid to fight for the fate of her home. It hurt. It always does. She knew, though, that the cost of war on her had been much lighter than some, and took from that knowledge what solace she could.But now the wars are over.
Kudos: 3





	A Promise to Return

_A smile on your face is all I await._

_I wonder, will we ever meet again_

_In a midnight breeze, where your dress_

_Plays in whim, fluttering as a heart does?_

_Or are we destined to hate?_

"I've been over this moment in my head time and time again. Waiting for it. I still have no idea what to do."

Ariadne recognised the voice instantly as it announced the arrival of her guest. She let her eyes fall shut and took a long breath of the evening air.

She'd waited on her balcony overlooking the canals of Suramar, a glass of wine almost completely ignored in favour of her apprehensions. Soft golden light spilled from the room behind her, framing her figure to anyone on the streets who looked up.

Had her guest seen her as she passed along those streets, she wondered?

"I'm sorry," Ariadne whispered, inaudible to anyone but herself. She couldn't bring herself to turn around yet. Speaking calmly was all she could manage at the moment.

So she did so. She just hoped the wavering wasn't too obvious.

"I don't either," she continued. "I'd… given up on this some time ago. I thought it just a dream."

Her guest's voice was closer as it responded. No - not her guest. Don't think of her like that. It was Valentina. Always Valentina.

"I lost count, Ariadne. How long has…?"

Another long breath. She could never forget, even if Valentina had. "Sixteen years. On the hill above that Southshore beach. I was in tears."

"We both were. I waited there for hours afterwards, watching the other couples as they moved around below, wishing that could be me."

She stopped there, but Ariadne knew how that thought concluded. _Wishing that could be us._

"It needed to happen. I was going-"

"To war, I know. To _another_ war. The wars are over now."

A lump caught in her throat. Ariadne tried to swallow it down, and when she failed, forced out words around it. "I hoped you would hate me. Or that you'd move on, at the very least."

"I tried. To move on, that is. I don't want to think about hating you. There were other people, but… nothing that felt even close to the same."

Ariadne turned around at last and dared to look. Valentina had changed only superficially. There were new lines at the corners of her eyes, the angles of her face ever so sharper. Yet she was still the woman Ariadne remembered, tall and graceful with hair the colour of spun gold falling in soft ringlets past rounded cheeks. Her eyes hadn't changed at all. They still looked out, blue of blue, glittering with a small sadness and a kind warmth.

She had once been able to lose herself in those eyes for hours. She didn't dare to now.

"Do you want me to apologise?" she asked.

"I want to see if the woman I loved is still there," Valentina responded. "I don't want your damned apologies. I want closure. To see if you're like what I remember."

"I can't promise that. I made so many mistakes - especially with you. If I'm the same as I was back then… perhaps we shouldn't go through this again."

"You're running."

The accusation stung. It stung because it was right. Ariadne winced involuntarily, not daring to respond. Valentina didn't continue, perhaps she expected some kind of retort or rebuttal, but gods, what do you even say to that?

They stood there, gazes fixed upon each other, both wondering what to do. Ariadne cracked first, letting out a deep sigh and walking over to a table upon which sat several bottles of arcwine and champagne flutes.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked.

"Of course," Valentina responded. "Do you remember what I like?"

Ariadne blinked back a sudden blur of tears. Such an innocuous question that could still prompt a response like that! She did remember. Thankfully, the action of pouring two flutes allowed her to turn away and blink back the flood of emotions. When she offered a glass to Valentina, it was with a steady hand and a composed expression.

"I was hoping I'd get to do this with you again," Ariadne blurted out.

A small smile graced the other woman's lips, for the first time since she'd arrived. "What, drink with me?"

She fidgeted. "Well… yes, but not…"

"It's alright." Valentina's demeanour resumed its seriousness, as if it had never broken. "I know what you mean."

They drank. The silence was comfortable - at first. The longer it went, the more painfully awkward it became. Ariadne found she was so tense she could barely swallow.

All of a sudden, Valentina whirled around, forcefully putting her flute down on a handrail still half-full. "Damn it! I shouldn't have-- I'm just making things worse by being here. I'm sorry, Ari. I can't do this to you. I _won't_ do this to you."

She strode towards the door, not looking back. It took Ariadne a moment to find her voice, and reach out towards her as if to grasp at her shoulder. "Wait!"

Valentina slowed, but did not stop. "Don't-- please, don't. Because if you ask me not to go… I won't."

"Do you want to go?"

This time, she did stop. Her voice cracked as she responded. "No. No, I don't."

"So why are you?" Ariadne knew why, more than she let on. She had to hear it from Valentina, though.

"I'm not stupid. I can see what I'm doing to you, how me just _being_ here is pressuring you to… try us again. I didn't think it through."

"You're not pressuring--"

"I am. I came here worried you had changed, and now it's obvious you haven't. You… you never could stand up to me, and even back then I felt awful about it, and I don't want to--"

"Valentina."

Upon hearing her name, she snapped quiet, and turned back around with wide eyes. Ariadne closed the distance between them before she continued. "You never made me do anything I didn't want to. What you think was me being unable to refuse was anything but. I could've stopped at any time. I just didn't want to. I was always at ease around you, always."

_Ariadne held it back as long as she could, and when it came, tried to muffle it as much as she could. Despite this, her fear came true, and as she sneezed, Valentina's sleeping form stirred on her lap._

_"Sorry, my love," she said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to wake you."_

_Valentina hummed contentedly in response and pulled herself up just enough that she could rest her head on her lover's chest. She murmured something Ariadne couldn't make out._

_"I missed that?"_

_She said it a little louder this time. "I'm never upset when I wake up on top of you."_

_"Oh." An unbidden smile pulled Ariadne's lips up. "You do need to sleep, though. Working fourteen hour shifts isn't healthy for you."_

_Her hand came up to stroke Valentina's hair. The other woman shifted again, pressing herself even closer._

_"I love you," she whispered._

_Ariadne responded instantly. "I love you too."_

_Their fingers curled around each other's. Gradually, Valentina returned to sleep, her breathing slow and regular on Ariadne's breast. The moment carried with it a magical aura, and she realised with shock that tears were spilling down her cheeks, rivers of happiness that almost dripped into her lover's hair._

_She wept for love and for a moment she wished would never end._

"But you're not now."

"No," she admitted. "Not now, no."

"Afraid of being forced into something you don't want to be in?"

"Afraid of destroying a beautiful thing."

Valentina considered this. "Do you mean… the past?"

"Our past. Aside from the… end, I don't have a _single_ bad memory of us. Ruining that… I'd never forgive myself."

Another silence. Valentina, when she spoke, did so in thin tones that made Ariadne's heart ache. "So there is still something between us, even if it's just as insubstantial as a feeling."

"There is. I never stopped feeling, but you were right. I'm running."

The other woman shifted uncomfortably. "I'm the one having doubts, now. What if you're right? What if me being here does end up being a huge mistake?"

"Valentina, if I still know you as well as I did then - that's just my anxieties rubbing off on you. Worrying that you were forcing me, or manipulating me… gods, I could say the same about myself. Whenever I stressed, you got it even worse."0

A small, fragile laugh. "We really are quite a pair of messes, aren't we?" she responded.

Ariadne knew what she wanted to say, but as she opened her mouth it was as if a fog of pure fear settled across her brain and stole the words away. All the strength left her legs, and she was forced to reach behind her and sit shakily in the nearest chair.

"Are you alright?" Valentina asked, with concern. She found she didn't know how to respond.

The other woman knelt down beside her, peering into her eyes. Ariadne had to avert her gaze. Had to come to terms with what she realised she wanted. Valentina didn't seem to realise.

"Should I go?" she asked. This time, the response was a firm shake of her head.

"Please don't," she whispered. Then, she reached out with her hand.

The touch of Valentina's hand on her own was like electricity. She was just as soft as Ariadne remembered, and she clung to her as if she were drowning. The noises of the city outside were lost, now - there was only the two of them, and a wish unspoken.

"You don't have to be afraid," Valentina whispered, her grip tightening for just a moment in a reassuring gesture. "I won't hurt you. If you want me to stay, I'll stay. If you want me to go, I can do that too. Whatever you need. All I want is for you to be safe."

Ariadne's eyelids dropped, her head tilting towards the other woman. She relished their contact, drank it in. Their fingers interlaced, the warmth of their pulses as they beat together.

"I don't want to be afraid," she replied. "I want to love you again. I want us to be a mess together. Not a pair of messes."

She heard the minute gasp that left Valentina. "Yes. Gods, yes. But… you're sure? You're not just saying that for me?"

"I'll regret it forever if I don't try this. I know that much. We have… a lot of things to work out, but I'm willing to -- no, more than that. I _want_ to work them out with you."

"Let's not skip straight back into love right away," Valentina said nervously, with the barest hint of laughter.

"No. We go with what feels right. We talk. It's not like we don’t have time, now."

"Time." The other woman gripped her hand with even more intensity. "I could never have enough."

Ariadne smiled, her eyes still closed. She didn't need to see right now, anyway. Only to feel. "So stay here for now. Take all the time you want."

"And talk?"

"Not if you don't want to. If you're as exhausted as I am, I wouldn't blame you if you can't."

"Exhausted… emotionally, right?"

She smiled again. "It's not like we've done anything to be physically exhausted, have we?"

Valentina considered that. "I suppose not. Not to ruin the mood, but this position is getting really uncomfortable - can I get a chair?"

Ariadne nodded. "Of course. Always. Or…"

"Or?"

"We could move to the couch. I'm dying to hold you."

They did. They sunk into the warmth of each other's embrace, tentatively at first, but gradually growing more comfortable in each other's presence. It was familiar, yet both frighteningly and tantalisingly new. Ariadne couldn't yet bring herself to let their lips touch, not for a while at least, but they rested together nonetheless. Her hand caressed Valentina's cheek, down to her arm, and she was caressed in turn.

There were no words said - none needed to be said. In time, they would be, but now was not that moment. Sheltered as they were, with the night waxing on and the city glittering below them, time disappeared. There was only a promise to live all there is, written in tentative touches and two gazes that never left each other.

_Will you hold my hand,_

_Slip your fingers in mine_

_And smile to the night?_

_Turn at last to me_

_To say_

_"This is what I meant."_

_And the sadness would be lifted_

_To let the rain fall._


End file.
